Another Elsevier Journal Goes “Blind”

“We know that research data isn’t neat and tidy. It’s messy, complex and often throws something unexpected at us. At the Journal of Vocational Behavior, as well as some of its fellow journals we’re ok with that, because we want to publish findings that tell the “truth” (or as close as we can get) and we can prove it to you.”

“Results masked review (RMR) is a new form of peer review which allows an article to be judged on the merits of its research question(s) and methodology, not the findings. This ensures that we publish important results, regardless of their statistical significance.” …

“This model has been adapted from Registered Reports, which is a form of empirical article in which the introduction, methods, and proposed analyses are pre-registered and reviewed prior to research being conducted. The key difference with RMR articles is that the data has already been collected before submission to the journal, but only the introduction, and methodology are initially submitted for review.”

“The Journal of Vocational Behavior is one of a number of journals in psychology, business and management considering RMR articles, including the Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Business and Psychology, BMC Psychology and Journal of Personnel Psychology.”